Directions To A Disappointment
As you will no doubt have guessed from my previous post, I was more than a little excited about The Black Angels‘ follow up to the excellent Passover. It has been just over 2 years since that great debut hit the shelves and its little brother was one of the most highly anticipated records of the last few years. There was genuine excitement about what the group from Texas would come up with.
It saddens me greatly, then, to inform you that Directions To See A Ghost is really rather disappointing. Not a bad album, I hasten to add, but not a really good one either. As i speculated before, it does sound darker and denser, but it also sounds tired and incomplete and leaves you wondering whether the album was rushed, either by the band or, as so often happens, by the record company. There are good songs here, deep down, this could have been a dark and menacing masterpiece, but whilst it has no doubt been recorded by a marvelous band, it sounds like its been recorded by a tired band, and theres a vigour thats really missing.
Before fans start to panic, be assured that there are some really good songs here and that all is not lost. Opener You On The Run sets a tone which the album generally fails to live up to. 18 Years is another rare occasion on this album when they pull off what they were trying to achieve. Deer-Ree-Shee so very nearly follows, but trails off towards the end, whilst lead-off single Doves again promises more than the album can deliver. And thats the story of the album, really – so much promise and potential but very little of it realised. The album sounds like a very good demo, and in years to come the band – who i have no doubt will go on to fulfill their very generous talent – will wish that they had taken a longer rest before going into the studio. I already wish they did. 6
By contrast, Dead Meadow are now onto their sixth album and still going strong. Old Growth sees them take a more relaxed and laid back aproach, with a cleaner sound than what you might be used to from them. Less feedback and distorted dirty drones (dirty being meant in a positive fashion here. I LOVE dirty drones) means more variety. More riffs and solos that can be described as almost ‘pop-y’. More ‘traditional’ songs such as the gentle Down Here. Its not an entirely new direction, they went down a similiar route at the start of the band’s existance, but now they had more time to sit down, make it cleaner and work on it. This is as varied an album as they have ever done, but its not variety for variety’s sake; everything here fits. Its a gentler, more reflective album and it works. It just works. 8
Spaceman!
